Drama Addict
New Zealand
What impressed me most was the special effects and the cast acted well.
You would see how the main character, Xiao Yan, overcame the schemes and attacks of his enemies with unexpected help through the drama. At every crisis, you wonder how was he going to get through this one.
You would might be reminded of Harry Potter, Jumanji, Alice in Wonderland, so in terms of originality, it did not measure high.
The drama was interesting but lacked an element of surprise and mystery. It was very clear who were on the good side and who were on the bad, so there was not much of a surprise. However, it made you clutch your fist when the bad guys were winning and were blaming and punishing the good guys for crimes they did not commit. You feel like punching them, if only you were there.
The title translation 'Fights break Sphere' is terrible. 'Battle through Heaven' without 'the' would be much better.
The final battle was exciting but the attempt to turn out a surprise at the very end did not work too well. Many Chinese dramas have terrible endings - perhaps you should start the story with the end in mind.
I would rate it among the top league although not quite in the ultra top like The Untamed, Nirvana in Fire or Ten Mile Peach Blossom - they set a standard difficult to beat.
But as you know this is the first season, so you would expect a sequel and an ending that was not conclusive.
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The story is quite cliche. Boy met girl and fell in love with her but she was in love with someone else. In turn, another girl was in love with him and determine to stop any love blossoming between them. Further down the drama, he discovered that there was much more behind his infatuation with her. Basically, romance dramas always involve triangles or multiple triangles. As a backdrop to this romance, there was the ambitious monarch who was out to sabotage and invade the rival tribe and disrupt the peaceful lives of the people. And some people were not quite what they appeared to be. I guess I can draw some parallel in life with these - that is why dramas are always fabricated along these themes - although real life stories are seldom as dramatic, thankfully. It is the variation in the story that keep you wondering how things are going to turn out that keeps you following.
There some weaknesses in the story. The lead female character Yi FuLing was pretty stupid - she was always trying to help but instead made situations worse. The same went for Yu Huan Zhen who could not figure out the situation, was dogmatic with his beliefs and was made use of by evil minded people. However, bearing in mind that they were teenage characters, we can understand the impetuousness.
Attention to details is sometimes lacking in Chinese dramas. Some scenes were inconsistent - FuLing fell from the sky, injured her leg and could not walk. When Feng TianYi came along and argued with her, she ran off in a fit of anger - that was a miraculous cure to her injured leg? At least should let her limped away.
There is this stubbornness in the characters - they each insisted on loving the person who did not reciprocate their love - wonder if this is cultural. We get over infatuation - hurt a little when it happened but we lick our wounds and move on, except for some psychopaths who turn fatal. I guess Bai TingJun and Xue FeiShuang are the psychopath equivalent .
A review on this website recommends skipping episode 28 and go straight to 29 if you want a happy ending and I did. I am wondering what is in 28 - I may go back and watch it but I am happy I went straight onto 29.
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An unimpressive start but developed beautifully
My initial reaction at the start of the drama was not great - I thought it was going to be boring. But I hung on and the story got more and more intriguing as the plot thickened, and then the mysteries started to unravel bit by bit as they moved from kingdom to kingdom. Easily the top 5 Chinese dramas I had ever watched in recent years.Acting was great and the character development especially of the hero, Wu Ji, was fantastic. There was an excellent mix of gut wrenching and comic moments. Yang Mi and Ethan Ruan had very good chemistry. The moments when Wu Ji teased and flirted with Fu Yao were hilarious. There were some draggy moments with the story around the general and his silly stalker but not much. It was a nice development too with Fu Yao moving on with her life as her early romantic relationship broke down - quite unlike a lot of Chinese dramas when the heros and heroines kept hanging on their love ones, which is unrealistic.
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This review may contain spoilers
Beautifully interwoven story
This is probably the best Chinese drama I have watched to-date. I gave a 10 for almost every attributes. The acting was first class - leading and supporting actors and actresses were all impressive, besides being good-looking. There was no lull moment. The plot was very well woven. The lead characters, Hu Ge and Liu Tao had excellent chemistry. The heart wrenching and gut rending moments made me cry and I do not cry easily. If I am to find any fault is the ending left me unhappy for a couple of days. The lead characters deserved better. But that is life - not everything ends happily. Later I found out that there was actually a clip which suggested a happier ending - I would have prefer if that was chosen instead.But there were some flaws - the appearance of the white-haired monster and the medical explanation for it was ridiculous. For a historic epic, there should be a more realistic medical case. If this is a fantasy drama, I would accept that. For this I took half a point off the story.
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Nothing much to say
Impressed by Luo Yunxi's acting in the Ashes of Love, I watched this drama. Unfortunately, other than him, there are no other good reasons for watching this series. If it is not because Luo was the lead actor, I would have rated it worse. He was very good. Other than him, acting and production were amateurish.I am spoiled by the epic series Ten Mile Peach Blossom, Fu Yao and Ashes of Love which have set very high standards; this drama paled in comparison. There were some interesting twists in the stories but were rather poorly developed. A lot happened in a short series which is only about one-sixth of the earlier mentioned epics. It was very fast moving and did not drag like the longer series but resulting in a story that was very shallow with too much happening. The story was also very cliche and in some parts, things just conveniently happened in favour of the heroine of the story. For example, the third prince suddenly returned from the war in time to save her from being locked up by the emperor, and an ambassador from a distance country just arrived at the right time to request for a special painting.
The lyrics at the beginning of the opening theme song made me cringed. In general, the music pieces were not that great. This could be one of the reasons that many of the romantic scenes just did not work out. Additionally, there seemed to be no chemistry between the main actor and actress. So the romantic scenes turned out completely tasteless. The romantic scenes Luo did in the Ashes of Love were a lot more touching even though it was a one-sided romance. In spite of a few 'gut wrenching' scenes, I did not even shred a tear.
The make-up artist had done a rather poor job on the main actress. She looked rather plain. Some earrings and hairpins could have improved that.
I do hope to see Luo Yunxi more often in future drama series of higher standards. He left a very positive impression in Ashes of Love.
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Thoroughly enjoyed this...
This drama is not a continuation to Ten Mile Peach Blossom although many of the key characters in the former series are either mentioned or re-featured. You can watch this series on its own without watching the former. It is more of a romantic comedy and more light-hearted compared to the Ten Mile Peach Blossom. There are more romantic and comical scenes while Ten Mile has more intense battle and gut-wrenching scenes. The witty verbal exchanges are hilarious. And the scenes when DiJun is teasing and flirting with FengJiu are amusing. However, you probably need to have a good command of Mandarin to appreciate it - from the English subtitles, I suspect much is lost.It has its own moment of suspense, making you wonder what is going to happen next and it did keep me glued to YouTube and myasiantv.io especially towards the second half. If you are a romantic, you will enjoy this. Dil and Gao had 'come out of age' to convincingly play the lead roles in this drama with only a short awkward appearance by Yang Mi and none by Mark Chao.
The initial 10 scenes are a little slow but comical, and almost look like a repeat of Ten Mile Peach Blossom with FengJiu's attempt to make it to DiJun's palace to serve him and the rivalry between FengJiu and ZhiHe was boring. It would be better if the duration of an episode or two were trimmed from the initial 10 episodes - they feel like time fillers. However, the story deviates. Once you get past these, you will start to enjoy it.
Like most dramas, it has its weaknesses in the story - a lot of the plot was based on FengJiu's distrust of DiJun - almost to the extend she looked like a self-pitying fool. For a plucky and mischievous girl, she suddenly became a fool when it came to matters of the heart. A lot of the gut-wrenching scenes become unconvincing and comical as they are more of self-pitying based on some imagination she was unloved and that DiJun loved someone else.
Dil is ravishingly beautiful as FengJiu and Gao is dashingly handsome as DiJun with the white hair and purple/white robes. Good looking leads are often key success factors for a drama or movie.
We all like a happy ending - I certainly do - I watch drama to enjoy it not sadden by it and I avoid tragedies. I always check that before I start any drama these days after suffering a few sad days with some other tragedies.
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Keeps you guessing her final choice
The story is intriguing and acting was excellent. Throughout, I was left wondering what would be the heroine's eventual choice.Being a sucker for the underdog, I was rooting for the 9th lord. He was rich and powerful but had obvious inferior complex because of his disability. Hu Ge has this doleful look that melts one's heart - he is an incredibly outstanding actor. Not many actors can match up to that standard.
I did not rewatch this drama like I did for the Nirvana in Fire, Ten Mile Blossom and Fu Yao, but I would certainly recommend watching for the first time.
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The story stemmed from a boy who acquired a murderous aura because of a sword his tribe was entrusted to guard, and the heavenly Crown Prince who was trying to unite his soul which was split into two. Both had to suffer immense pain.
The drama is good but not among the top league. The story was much ado about nothing. For example, why had the Crown Prince sought such a big detour to re-unite his soul? It had already been a thousand years. He could have approached the guarding tribe and told them who he was, and what he needed and found a more direct way to re-unite his soul without such a huge upheaval.
Also, episode 48 was a big yawn. The group was supposed to be preparing for a battle. Tusu had only three days to sustain his power, yet they were indulging in leisurely mushy conversations and enjoying romantic moments under the starlight. I must have been hardened by watching too much drama - I find them neither touching nor romantic. The romance between Li Yi Feng and Yang Mi were not well played up - failed to stir up any emotion in me.
There were these persistent attempts by people around trying to dissuade the key people from certain course of action - don't do this, don't do that - after a while it became really annoying - perhaps this is the Chinese culture.
The audio on YouTube videos was muted in a number of spots - and one of the theme music sounded very familiar - I suspect there was copyright issues which did not allow it to be broadcast outside of China.
However, if you are locked down in this pandemic and running out of entertainment, this could still be worth watching.
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As with a lot of Chinese dramas, it does well on the hygiene factors: beautiful scenery and computer graphics, strong cast (with both Yang Zi and LiYing Zhao in it), good looking actors and actresses, lovely costumes, lovely music. But the story is somewhat lacklustre - it is just a regular story of guy from good sect and girl from demon sect falling in love and faced a rough journey to be together.
There are a lot of frustrating moments/elements:
1. The first: too long. Series 2 is a continuation and the total of the 2 series is 73 episodes. As expected, when a drama is that long, there are a lot of draggy moments and flashbacks, to fill the time.
2. The evil always survived and lived to create further havoc. It was not until the second series that they were killed off one by one.
3. The main lead was always doing good but the top sector leaders failed to see it, busy with their adherence to rules and rather questionable principles. But instead trusted all the traitors. A bit like the bureaucracy of a large organisation.
4. It is all the cliche stuff - save the damsel in distress or the guy in distress. Not all that well executed for it to feel romantic.
5. The 2 lead characters were all ready to die for each other, and so are the 2 wolf demons. But really, life is that romantic? And Xiao Fen did not even turn his head at the beautiful Lu except for a short brief moment when he met her at the gathering for briefing at the competition?
6. It is all about loyalty. Again, really? Loyalty, adhering to promises and gratitude are good values but should not blind anyone to right or wrong. Xiao Fen's stubborn silence about his weapon and martial art was a the verge of stupidity.
7. Very judgemental and self-righteous: expecting the other person to act as they wanted them to and believing they knew what was best for them, regardless of the wish of the individual. When they refused, they are labelled stubborn. Jing Yu went as far as to sabotage his bro and leaked his seeking the resurrection stone to the enemies because he did not want him to save Bi Yao, indirectly causing his turning away from Qing Yun.
6 and 7 could be about the Chinese culture but 7 is definitely not pretty.
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Twists and turns
This was an interesting story. The Crown Prince died under mysterious circumstance. The royal physicians attributed it to a blood disease. But the Queen believed that he had been murdered. Defiant against all forces trying to stop her, she was determined to investigate. His death sparked off a fight for the crown prince position now out for grabs. The Queen hoped that one of her four grand princes would succeed the Crown Prince. However, the Queen Dowager, Chief State Councilor and other royal consorts especially Consort Hwang, the birth mother of the King's eldest son, were not going to make it easy.What I like about this drama?
1. The story had a lot of twists and turns, shrouded in mystery. The investigation led to the uncovering of a similar mysterious death of Crown Prince Taein, the brother of the current King. So what was the connection? The sons of the Queen, the grand princes were all underdogs - with skeletons in their closets, unambitious or disadvantaged. The power-hungry, scheming and wicked Queen Dowager was against her as well. It all seemed a losing game for the Queen.
2. Mix of humour. The drama was quite intense. However, there were moments of humorous relief.
3. The cast was good, not to leave out good looking as well. The leads were outstanding.
What I do not like about this drama?
1. It was based on yet another theme of fighting for the throne; a theme that was beaten to death.
2. Very intense and stressful to watch.
3. Not much chemistry between the male and female leads. They were not given much chance to demonstrate their chemistry either.
Overall, I rated this a 9.5 with not much else to nitpick on. Enjoy it...
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My favourite Cheng Yi's drama yet
I was usually not a fan of Cheng Yi - insofar, the dramas I watched of his are mostly of him portraying depressive characters. This was the first time I see him in a character that was somewhat playful, wickedly humourous and cleverly cunning - a lot more interesting, and I think he did very well. Of course the second lead Joseph Zeng also did very well as his naive side kick.Overall, I rated this drama very highly although I hated the ending. An excellent cast, good looking actors/resses, interesting story, realistic costume and backdrop, good cinematography - it scored well on all the important factors. But like a lot of Chinese drama, it had a bitter sweet ending.
Li Xiang Yi (Cheng Yi) was an outstanding swordsman with a very strong sense of justice and righteousness. Di Fei Sheng, head of the JinYuan sect challenged him to a fight for the top rank in the martial world. Secretly poisoned by Jiao Li Qiao, a psychopath, before the fight, he fell into the river after destroying the ship of the JinYuan sect and was missing.
Ten years later, Di Fei Sheng recovered from his injuries and emerged once again in the martial world. Around this time, someone who earned the title of a miracle doctor known as Li LianHua was travelling around the world in a tower horse carriage. He met Fang DuoBing, a young passionate swordsman who claimed to be the disciple of the missing Li XiangYi. Both had identities that they were either hiding or were ignorant of.
The story was interesting as DuoBing and an unwilling LianHua worked together to uncover a huge conspiracy involving a vanquished kingdom and the bloodline of the current Xi dynasty. It was one of the best detective dramas that I had watched.
Strongly recommend this drama but I must say, you better not be suffering from a depression as the ending was melancholic.
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The main male lead acted by Xu Kai was somewhat silly and stupid but ironically he became very outstanding in military strategies and martial arts. The emperor Li Shi Min was the least likeable portrayal of this character of the 3 dramas I watched including The Empress of China, The Long Ballad. He was not as brilliant as history recorded him to be. The lead female character acted by Li YiTong was pretty and intelligent but was always bureaucratic and stony - her character was incredulous - always perfect. The empress was deemed a virtuous empress but she had a vicious side and was obviously protecting her son, the crown prince and his position. She even killed her fourth daughter-in-law because of the setup from the jealous and petty crown princess. The crown prince was like his consort - petty and not quite bright.
There were a lot of comical scenes but yet it was not quite a comedy - there were intense political rivalry, deceit, and deaths. I would say it is a mix genre.
There were an obvious discontinuity in the drama - it seemed some parts were clumsily cut and trimmed.
The costumes were a little lacking compared to the top Chinese dramas and looked like a low budget production. The head wear for the guys were terrible. Overall, I would not rate it as a tiptop drama. But regardless, it is entertaining. So if you are locked down in this pandemic looking for something to do, watching this drama could be it.
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Overrated?
Frankly, I think this drama is over-rated on Mydramalist. Although the role reversal of men and women in 2 different cities is somewhat creative, the drama is quite cliche. The same old popular tricks in Chinese dramas are played - tripping and falling into the arms of the hero, damsel in distress, rivalry for the throne (in this case between sisters for city leadership). In this drama, the writer dreamed of herself as a character in a script she was writing - this is somewhat similar to being drawn into an earlier era as a different person. And the heroine is absolutely silly.I didn't laugh; I didn't cry; I just endure to find out what would be the ending. Finally after watching episode 12, I skipped to the last 3 episodes and did not feel I missed much.
Also, I am beginning to doubt the rating on Mydramalist on the newly released dramas. Ratings had been quite 'accurate' on the qualities of dramas in the past. But in the recent few months, it has been a wreck. Dramas like Legend of Xiao Chuo was rated at 7.6 when I believe it should be between 8.6 to 9.1 in the same league as Nirvana in Fire 1&2 and Ten Mile Peach Blossom. And this drama is rated at 8.6 when I think it should be in the range of 7.6 to 7.9 - similar to Chang'an Youth, The Destiny of White Snake, Flame's Daughter and Bloody Romance.
The early reviewers have always this unhealthy influence on subsequent reviews at the early stage and bias the rating. I think the reviews following each drama reviews should be listed in reverse chronological order with the latest first, so that the earliest reviewer does not monopolise the first position.
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Mesmerising
This drama is absolutely worth watching, with two great leads - Wang Yibo and Zhao Liying. The two of them demonstrate the best onscreen chemistry I had ever seen in Chinese dramas. Their acting was very natural. I think this drama is underrated on Mydramalist.Yibo continued to mesmerise with his good looks and excellent acting. He is very versatile and did equally well in this drama as a playful and mischievous young man as he did in The Untamed as a cold stern stony face. I am impressed with his acting skills - his facial expression is remarkable - he can talk without saying anything - just like the way he did in The Untamed. In this drama, his face would lit up whenever he saw Fei (acted by Liying). His jealous reaction when a love rival appeared on this scene is likely to make you crack up.
Liying has this amazing ability to develop this onscreen chemistry with her male counterparts in all the dramas I had seen her in.
The drama was not so emotionally intense and there were humour scattered throughout. But as a drama, it would keep you captivated as you wonder who was Xie Yun, what was going to happen next, the mystery behind the 'Hai tian yi ser' and the various dramatic events. The pace was good until about episode 38 when there were a few scenes when the story was not making much progress - seemed to me like time fillers. However, I do not think they account for more than an episode put together.
I watched the drama a second time and liked it even better the second time. Not caught up with wondering where the story was going, I could focus on the acting and appreciate it even more.
However, I must suggest that translators stop using 'legend of' as drama titles - they are so overused, they cheapen the value of the drama, and sound so cliche. This drama could be simply called 'Fei' or 'Shrouded Myth' or 'Love Beyond'.
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Both the opening and ending theme songs were beautiful - melodious tune and lovely lyrics.
It is unfortunate the audio track was muted at various spots in the MGTV YouTube uploads and the English subtitles are really painful to read. The subtitles on the MGTV version was a mix bag - seemingly alright but with some contextual wrong use of words. It looked like it was done through a digital translator but was not edited by a human. In the rewatch, I found the Hotspot uploads which seem to have better audio and subtitles and less inserted ads.
The entire drama is well-paced except for a few episodes when it got a little boring and dry. There were a couple of lost opportunities to build some suspense and tension but the director/scriptwriter/editor had let it past.
For example, when Lu Yi and Xie Xiao were missing, the editor could have delayed showing what happened to them and let them re-appeared unexpectedly at the battle. That could have left the viewers on edge - worried that the battle would be lost as no help was on the way and the two guys might be missing.
Another incidence was when Yang Yue fell off the cliff and re-appeared under a veil. Again what happened between these incidence could have been kept under wrap - possibly making it a mystery who was this person under the veil - the knowledge that he was saved made it easy to guess who that was. The explanations of what happened to them could have been left until after they re-appear as a flashback explanation. The drama at these points became rather boring run-of-the-mill repeats of things going wrong instead of interesting plots.
Also, a couple of the characters were a little boring. XieXiao was always impetuous and goofy, and YangYue was always a bit thick-headed. And they did not seem to develop through the drama.
I like the ending - playing up the emotions and not quite a tragedy.
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